Media

Topic

Israel

Strengthening EU-Israel Ties and Working towards a Negotiated Two-State Solution.

The AJC Transatlantic Institute is a firm proponent of strengthening the EU-Israel relationship, which is based on shared democratic values, interests and history. Israel’s unique expertise in areas ranging from counter-terrorism to cybersecurity and high-tech to entrepreneurship reinforce the need for an even deeper, strategic EU-Israel partnership.

While AJC has long advocated for a negotiated two-state solution to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, progress in the peace process doesn’t depend on Israel alone and thus shouldn’t be a precondition to deepening the mutually beneficial EU-Israel relationship.

We seek to inform the policy debate in Brussels on EU-Israel ties, the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Jewish state’s place in the world.

 

AJC's Project Interchange

Through AJC’s Project Interchange, we organize for European policy-makers, diplomats and opinion leaders week-long seminars to Israel and the Palestinian territories to experience first-hand the complexities on the ground.

⇨ Learn more about AJC’s Project Interchange

Related events

October 13, 2021

AJC's Transatlantic Friends of Israel Opens Austrian Chapter

After the launch of the Transatlantic Friends of Israel (TFI) inter-parliamentary group in the EU Parliament in July 2019, the first national chapter opened on October 13 in the Austrian parliament, under the leadership of Chair MP Martin Engelberg and the support of lawmakers from the Greens, the Social-Democrats and NEOS, the liberal party.
December 10, 2019

20 EU Diplomats Visit Gaza Border with AJC

AJC Jerusalem co-organized with the Delegation of the EU to Israel a one-day tour for 20 EU Deputy Chiefs of Mission to the area surrounding Gaza. At the Kerem Shalom commercial crossing, where some 15,000 tons of goods pass daily, the diplomats saw up-close Israel’s critical role in ensuring the humanitarian needs of the people of Gaza are met. The group also spoke with Israelis in the town of Netiv Haasara, who live under the constant threat of rocket attacks.
November 19, 2019

Transatlantic Friends of Israel Breakfast Discussion

The Transatlantic Friends of Israel (TFI) group hosted Brigadier General (Res.) Assaf Orion, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies, for a breakfast discussion on Israel’s geostrategic situation and the Jewish state’s multi-faceted security challenges. The exclusive audience included 35 cross-party MEPs and parliamentary advisors. H.E. Aharon Leshno-Yaar, Israel’s Ambassador to the EU, and Christina Tomlinson, Minister Counselor for Public Affairs of the U.S. Mission to the EU, also attended.

Media

14/07/2021

Israel’s Security and Political Challenges Under the New Government

On 12 June 2021, Naftali Bennett, leader of Israel’s New Right party, was sworn in as Prime Minister as part of a rotation agreement with Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party. The unprecedented coalition holds only a wafer-thin majority and brings together political parties with vast ideological differences, including for the first time an Arab party. MEP Lukas Mandl, Lahav Harkov, Jerusalem Post Senior Contributing Editor and Diplomatic Correspondent, Daniel Schwammenthal, AJC Transatlantic Institute Director, and Roland Freudenstein, Wilfried Martens Centre Policy Director discussed how the new government will address domestic issues and foreign affairs.

30/06/2021

European Commission President Vows to Strengthen Ties with Israel and Fight Antisemitism at AJC Global Forum

Addressing thousands of participants worldwide at AJC Global Forum 2021, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pledged to strengthen ties with Israel, “a vitally important country for the European Union, not only because of our common past, but also because of our common future,” and underlined the EU’s commitment to fight rising antisemitism across the continent.

30/06/2021

French President Macron Pledges Commitment to Israel’s Security and Fight against Anti-Jewish Hatred at AJC Global Forum

"France's profound attachment to Israel's security [...] has never wavered," declared French President Emmanuel Macron to an international audience at AJC Global Forum 2021. Stressing France’s adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism in December 2019, President Macron reiterated his commitment to combat hatred and extremism across the country.

30/06/2021

UAE Foreign Minister Discusses UAE-Israel Ties, Peace in the Middle East

In a landmark conversation during AJC Global Forum 2021, H.H. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the United Arab Emirates, discussed the momentum brought by the normalization of UAE-Israel ties, the spread of peace across the Middle East, AJC’s newest office in Abu Dhabi, and more with AJC Chief Policy and Political Affairs Officer Jason Isaacson.

18/05/2021

TFI Chair Mandl: Israel Defends Itself and Civilizational Values

Brussels, 18 May 2021 - “Heavily-armed terror organizations unscrupulously fire rockets at civilian residential areas. Children, women and men are traumatized by this rocket fire and other acts of terror and are ultimately the victims of these terrorists,” says Lukas Mandl, speaker on foreign...

14/05/2021

Gaza Media Rules

Rule Number 1: Don’t report the facts. In this must-read satire column for New Europe, Daniel Schwammenthal, Director of the AJC Transatlantic Institute, offers a 10-point reporter’s guide for gullible journalists who are covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and want to demonstrate that they don’t know what they’re talking about.

14/05/2021

Hamas Is Dedicated to Killing Jews

Some have attempted to apply logic to the onslaught of rockets fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip. But in this Newsweek op-ed, Avi Mayer, AJC Managing Director of Global Communications, explains that this conflict is about Hamas and its dedication, in word and deed, to destroying the Jewish state and murdering Jews.

13/05/2021

AJC Joins European and North American Lawmakers in Affirming Support for Israel

13 May 2021 - Brussels – The AJC Transatlantic Institute hailed the outpour of support for Israel in a statement signed by over 50 European and North American lawmakers from 20 countries in response to indiscriminate rocket attacks against Israeli civilians by Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The...

11/05/2021

Israel and Gaza: Moral Clarity, Moral Fog

In this forceful column for The Times of Israel, AJC CEO David Harris issues a powerful call for moral clarity. “Hamas celebrates death, something too few outside observers can truly understand,” he writes. “Israel celebrates life... And it is determined to defend life — as it should, as it must.”

29/04/2021

HRW Defames Israel - AJC Reacts

Last week Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Israel of pursuing a policy of “apartheid and persecution.” AJC Director for Diplomatic Affairs Aaron Jacob exposes the HRW report’s most glaring biases, including the organization’s attempt to portray the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as racial in nature when, in fact, it is “a political conflict between two peoples with competing national goals – and should be addressed as such. Attempts to transform it into a racial or religious conflict make it much more difficult to resolve. By embracing the two-state solution and making generous peace overtures, Israel has made it abundantly clear that it does not want to rule the Palestinians.”